The military history of Greece is the history of the wars and battles of the Greek people in Greece, the Balkans and the Greek colonies in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea since classical antiquity.

1.
Military history of ancient Greece
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Warfare occurred throughout the history of ancient Greece, from the Greek Dark Ages onward. The Greek Dark Age drew to a close as a significant increase in population allowed urbanized culture to be restored and these developments ushered in the period of Archaic Greece. They also restored the capability of organized warfare between these Poleis, the fractious nature of Ancient Greek society seems to have made continuous conflict on this larger scale inevitable. Along with the rise of the city-state evolved a new style of warfare, Hoplites were armored infantryman, armed with spear and shield, and the phalanx was a formation of these soldiers with their shields locked together and spears pointed forward. The chigi vase, dated to around 650 BC, is the earliest depiction of a hoplite in full battle array, with this evolution in warfare, battles seem to have consisted mostly of the clash of hoplite phalanxes from the city-states in conflict. Since the soldiers were citizens with other occupations, warfare was limited in distance, season, neither side could afford heavy casualties or sustained campaigns, so conflicts seem to have been resolved by a single set-piece battle. The scale and scope of warfare in Ancient Greece changed dramatically as a result of the Greco-Persian Wars, to fight the enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was effectively beyond the capabilities of a single city-state. The eventual triumph of the Greeks was achieved by alliances of many city-states, the rise of Athens and Sparta during this conflict led directly to the Peloponnesian War, which saw diversification of warfare. Emphasis shifted to naval battles and strategies of attrition such as blockades and sieges, following the defeat of the Athenians in 404 BC, and the disbandment of the Athenian-dominated Delian League, Ancient Greece fell under the Spartan hegemony. But this was unstable, and the Persian Empire sponsored a rebellion by the powers of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos. Persia switched sides, which ended the war, in return for the cities of Ionia, the Spartan hegemony would last another 16 years, until, at the Battle of Leuctra the Spartans were decisively defeated by the Theban general Epaminondas. The Thebans acted with alacrity to establish a hegemony of their own over Greece, however, Thebes lacked sufficient manpower and resources, and became overstretched. Following the death of Epaminondas and loss of manpower at the Battle of Mantinea, the losses in the ten years of the Theban hegemony left all the Greek city-states weakened and divided. The city-states of southern Greece were too weak to resist the rise of the Macedonian kingdom in the north, with revolutionary tactics, King Phillip II brought most of Greece under his sway, paving the way for the conquest of the known world by his son Alexander the Great. The rise of the Macedonian Kingdom is generally taken to signal the beginning of the Hellenistic period, along with the rise of the city-state evolved a brand new style of warfare and the emergence of the hoplite. The hoplite was an infantryman, the element of warfare in Ancient Greece. The word hoplite derives from hoplon meaning an item of armor or equipment, Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx, Hoplite armor was extremely expensive for the average citizen, so it was commonly passed down from the soldiers father or relative

2.
History of Greece
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The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece, as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages, and, as a result, at its cultural and geographical peak, Greek civilization spread from Greece to Egypt and to the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Since then, Greek minorities have remained in former Greek territories, nowadays most Greeks live in the modern states of Greece and Cyprus. The Neolithic Revolution reached Europe beginning in 7000–6500 BC when agriculturalists from the Near East entered the Greek peninsula from Anatolia by island-hopping through the Aegean Sea. The first Greek-speaking tribes, speaking the predecessor of the Mycenaean language, little specific information is known about the Minoans, including their language, which was recorded on the undeciphered Linear A script). They were primarily a people engaged in extensive overseas trade throughout the Mediterranean region. Minoan civilization was affected by a number of natural cataclysms such as the eruption at Thera. In 1425 BC, the Minoan palaces were devastated by fire, the Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenaean civilization on Crete was revealed to the modern world by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, when he purchased and then began excavating a site at Knossos. Mycenaean civilization originated and evolved from the society and culture of the Early and it emerged in circa 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete and lasted until the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces in c.1100 BC. Mycenaean Greece is the Late Helladic Bronze Age civilization of Ancient Greece and it is the setting of the epics of Homer and most of Greek mythology. The Mycenaean period takes its name from the archaeological site Mycenae in the northeastern Argolid, Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy, around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek. The Mycenaean-era script is called Linear B, which was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, the Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs, large circular burial chambers with a high-vaulted roof and straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some form of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor. Mycenaeans were buried in a position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification. Around 1100–1050 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed, numerous cities were sacked and the region entered what historians see as a dark age. During this period, Greece experienced a decline in population and literacy, the Greeks themselves have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, although there is scant archaeological evidence for this view

3.
Neolithic Greece
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Neolithic Greece is an archaeological term used to refer to the Neolithic phase of Greek history beginning with the spread of farming to Greece in 7000–6500 BC. The Neolithic Revolution reached Europe beginning in 7000–6500 BC when agriculturalists from the Near East entered the Greek peninsula from Anatolia mainly by island-hopping through the Aegean Sea. Modern archaeologists have divided the Neolithic period of Greek history into six phases, Pre-Pottery, Early Neolithic, Middle Neolithic, Late Neolithic I, Late Neolithic II and these are the estimated populations of hamlets, villages, and towns of Neolithic Greece over time. Note that there are problems with estimating the sizes of individual settlements. The Pre-Ceramic period of Neolithic Greece is characterized by the absence of baked clay pots, settlements consisted of subterranean huts partially dug into the ground with communities inhabited by 50 to 100 people in places such as Argissa, Dendra and Franchthi. The inhabitants cultivated various crops, engaged in fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, developed tools and produced jewellery from clay, seashells, hearths and ovens were constructed in open spaces between the huts and were commonly used. The Middle Neolithic period is characterized by new developments such as houses constructed with stone foundations. In the realm of art, the motif was found on seals and jewellery of the Early Neolithic period and, to a lesser extent. During this period, new crops were cultivated such as wheat, rye, millet. Animals such as sheep and goats were raised for their wool, the Late Neolithic I period was succeeded by the Late Neolithic II period where economic and social life in existing settlements continued uninterruptedly. The Final Neolithic period entails the transition from the Neolithic farming and stock-rearing economy to the economy of the Early Bronze Age. According to Gareth Alun Owens, the Neolithic period saw the development of Minoan and Greek as distinct Indo-European languages in Crete and mainland Greece respectively

4.
Helladic period
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Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is used in archaeology and art history. The scheme applies primarily to pottery and is a dating system. The pottery at any given site typically can be ordered into Early, Middle and Late on the basis of style, the total time window allowed for the site is then divided into these periods proportionately. As it turns out, there is a correspondence between Early over all Greece, etc, also, some absolute dates, or dates obtained by non-comparative methods, can be used to date the periods and are preferable whenever they can be obtained. However, the structure was devised before the age of carbon-dating. Typically, only relative dates are obtainable and form a structure for the characterization of Greek prehistory, objects are generally dated by the pottery of the site found in associative contexts. Other objects can be arranged into early, middle and late as well, the three terms Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan refer to location of origin. Thus Middle Minoan objects might be found in the Cyclades, the scheme tends to be less applicable in areas on the periphery of the Aegean, such as the Levant. Pottery there might imitate Helladic or Minoan cultural models and yet be locally manufactured, the Early, Middle and Late scheme can be applied at different levels. Not all levels are present at every site, if additional levels are required, another Early, Middle or Late can be appended. The Helladic period is subdivided as, These are the populations of hamlets, villages. Note that there are problems with estimating the sizes of individual settlements. The EH period corresponds in time to the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the large longhouse called a megaron was introduced in EHII. The infiltration of Anatolian cultural models was not accompanied by widespread site destruction, the Early Helladic I period, also known as the Eutresis culture, is characterized by the presence of unslipped and burnished or red slipped and burnished pottery at Korakou and other sites. Changes in settlement during the EHII period were accompanied with alterations in agricultural practices, the Early Helladic II period came to an end at Lerna with the destruction of the House of Tiles, a corridor house. Changes in climate also appear to have contributed to the significant cultural transformations that occurred in Greece between the EHII period and the EHIII period, in Greece, the Middle Helladic period was a period of cultural retrogression, which first manifested in the preceding EHIII period. In general, painted pottery decors are rectilinear and abstract until Middle Helladic III, the Middle Helladic period corresponds in time to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt

5.
Cycladic culture
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Cycladic civilization is an Early Bronze Age culture of the Cyclades, Greece, in the Aegean Sea, spanning the period from approximately 3200–2000 BC. These figures have been stolen from burials to satisfy the Cycladic antiquities market since the early 20th century, only about 40% of the 1,400 figurines found are of known origin, since looters destroyed evidence of the rest. Excavated sites include Saliagos and Kephala, which showed signs of copper-working, each of the small Cycladic islands could support no more than a few thousand people, though Late Cycladic boat models show that fifty oarsmen could be assembled from the scattered communities. The chronology of Cycladic civilization is divided into three sequences, Early, Middle and Late Cycladic. The early period, beginning c.3000 BC segued into the archaeologically murkier Middle Cycladic c.2500 BC, by the end of the Late Cycladic sequence there was essential convergence between Cycladic and Minoan civilization. There is some tension between the systems used for Cycladic civilization, one cultural and one chronological. Interest then lagged, but picked up in the mid-20th century, sites were looted and a brisk trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic Figurines has thus been mostly destroyed, another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between c.3300 and 2000 BC, when it was submerged in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. Excavations at Knossos on Crete reveal an influence of Cycladic civilization upon Knossos in the period 3400 to 2000 BC as evidenced from pottery finds at Knossos, Cycladic art Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art History of the Cyclades

6.
Minoan civilization
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The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, the civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, the term Minoan, which refers to the mythical King Minos, originally described the pottery of the period. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, according to Homer, Crete once had 90 cities. The Minoan period saw trade between Crete and Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East, traders and artists, the Minoan cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypts Old Kingdom, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. Some of its best art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, although the Minoan language and writing systems remain undecipherable and are subjects of academic dispute, they apparently conveyed a language entirely different from the later Greek. The reason for the end of the Minoan period is unclear, theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece, the term Minoan refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos. Its origin is debated, but it is attributed to archeologist Arthur Evans. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos. However, Karl Hoeck had already used the title Das Minoische Kreta in 1825 for volume two of his Kreta, this appears to be the first known use of the word Minoan to mean ancient Cretan, Evans said that applied it, not invented it. Hoeck, with no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed, had in mind the Crete of mythology, although Evans 1931 claim that the term was unminted before he used it was called a brazen suggestion by Karadimas and Momigliano, he coined its archaeological meaning. Instead of dating the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology, the first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and imported Egyptian artifacts. Evans system divides the Minoan period into three eras, early, middle and late. These eras are subdivided—for example, Early Minoan I, II and III, another dating system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of architectural complexes known as palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Kato Zakros. Platon divides the Minoan period into pre-, proto-, neo-, the relationship between the systems in the table includes approximate calendar dates from Warren and Hankey. The Thera eruption occurred during a phase of the LM IA period. Efforts to establish the volcanic eruptions date have been controversial, the eruption is identified as a natural event catastrophic for the culture, leading to its rapid collapse. Although stone-tool evidence exists that hominins may have reached Crete as early as 130,000 years ago, evidence for the first anatomically-modern human presence dates to 10, the oldest evidence of modern human habitation on Crete are pre-ceramic Neolithic farming-community remains which date to about 7000 BC

7.
Mycenaean Greece
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Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its states, urban organization, works of art. Among the centers of power emerged, the most notable were those of Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in Argolid, to which the culture of this era owes its name. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language, Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of society was the king, known as wanax. Various theories have proposed for the end of this civilization. Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have also suggested. The Mycenaean period became the setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology. The Bronze Age in mainland Greece is generally termed as the Helladic period by modern archaeologists, after Hellas, the Greek name for Greece. This period is divided into three subperiods, The Early Helladic period was a time of prosperity with the use of metals, the Middle Helladic period faced a slower pace of development, as well as the evolution of megaron-type dwellings and cist grave burials. Finally, the Late Helladic period roughly coincides with Mycenaean Greece, the transition period from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Greece is known as Sub-Mycenaean. Moreover, it revealed that the bearers of Mycenaean culture were ethnically connected with the populations that resided in the Greek peninsula after the end of this cultural period. Various collective terms for the inhabitants of Mycenaean Greece were used by Homer in his 8th century BC epic, the Iliad, in reference to the Trojan War. The latter was supposed to have happened in the late 13th – early 12th century BC, Homer used the ethnonyms Achaeans, Danaans and Argives, to refer to the besiegers. These names appear to have passed down from the time they were in use to the time when Homer applied them as terms in his Iliad. There is an reference to a-ka-wi-ja-de in the Linear B records in Knossos, Crete dated to c.1400 BC

8.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC

9.
Greek Dark Ages
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Around then, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation, in Greece, the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceased. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler,900 BC onwards, and evidence has emerged of the new presence of Hellenes in sub-Mycenaean Cyprus and on the Syrian coast at Al Mina. The Mycenaean civilization started to collapse from 1200 BC, made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were on the move, scattered in war, no country could stand before their arms…. Their league was Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, a similar assemblage of peoples may have attempted to invade Egypt twice, once during the reign of Merneptah, about 1208 BC, and again during the reign of Ramesses III, about 1178 BC. Writing in the Linear B script ceased particularly because the economy had crashed. The population of Greece was reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained within them. The fragmented, localized and autonomous cultures of reduced complexity are noted for such diversity of their cultures in pottery styles, burial practices. The pottery style, Proto- Geometric signaled the loss of previous designs that were more complex and these newer designs were simpler, including only lines and curves, signaling a simplified society. Generalizations about the Dark Age Society are generally considered false, because the various cultures throughout Greece cannot be grouped into a large Dark Age Society category. Tholos tombs are found in early Iron Age Thessaly and in Crete but not in general elsewhere, there was still farming, weaving, metalworking and pottery but at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles. Better glazes were achieved by higher temperature firing of clay, however, the overall trend was toward simpler, less intricate pieces and fewer resources being devoted to the creation of beautiful art. From 1050, many local iron industries appeared, and by 900. Cyprus was inhabited by a mix of Pelasgians and Phoenicians, joined during this period by the first Greek settlements. Together with distinctively Greek Euboean ceramic wares, it was exported and is found in Levantine sites, including Tyre. Cypriot metalwork was exchanged in Crete and it is likely that Greece during this period was divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins of the later poleis. Excavations of Dark Age communities such as Nichoria in the Peloponnese have shown how a Bronze Age town was abandoned in 1150 BC, at this time there were only around forty families living there with plenty of good farming land and grazing for cattle

10.
Archaic Greece
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According to Anthony Snodgrass, the Archaic period in ancient Greece was bounded by two revolutions in the Greek world. The Archaic period saw developments in Greek politics, economics, international relations, warfare and it laid the groundwork for the Classical period, both politically and culturally. The word archaic derives from the Greek word archaios, which means old and it refers to the period in ancient Greek history before the classical. The Archaic period was considered to have been less important and historically interesting than the classical period. More recently, however, Archaic Greece has come to be studied for its own achievements, with this reassessment of the significance of the Archaic period, some scholars have objected to the term archaic, due to its connotations in English of being primitive and outdated. No term which has suggested to replace it has gained widespread currency, however. Much of our evidence about the period of ancient Greece comes from written histories. By contrast, we have no evidence from the Archaic period. We have written accounts of life in the period in the form of poetry, and epigraphical evidence, including parts of law codes, inscriptions on votive offerings, however, none of this evidence is in the quantity for which we have it in the classical period. What is lacking in evidence, however, is made up for in the rich archaeological evidence from the Archaic Greek world. Indeed, where much of our knowledge of classical Greek art comes from later Roman copies, other sources for the period are the traditions recorded by later Greek writers such as Herodotus. However, these traditions are not part of any form of history as we would recognise it today, indeed, Herodotus does not even record any dates before 480 BC. Politically, the Archaic period saw the development of the polis as the predominant unit of political organisation, many cities throughout Greece came under the rule of autocratic leaders, called tyrants. The period also saw the development of law and systems of communal decision-making, with the earliest evidence for law codes, by the end of the Archaic period, both the Athenian and Spartan constitutions seem to have developed into their classical forms. The Archaic period saw significant urbanisation, and the development of the concept of the polis as it was used in classical Greece. The urbanisation process in Archaic Greece known as synoecism – the amalgamation of small settlements into a single urban centre – took place in much of Greece in the eighth century BC. Both Athens and Argos, for instance, began to coalesce into single settlements around the end of that century and these two factors created a need for a new form of political organisation, as the political systems in place at the beginning of the Archaic period quickly became unworkable. Though in the part of the classical period the city of Athens was both culturally and politically dominant, it was not until the late sixth century that it became a leading power in Greece

11.
Classical Greece
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Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Greek culture. This Classical period saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire, Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, theatre, literature, in the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period, sometimes called the Hellenic period, corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period and this century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in Classical Greece, the period referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 4th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant. However, a view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC, the Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens instrument. Athens excesses caused several revolts among the cities, all of which were put down by force. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about, then the war resumed to Spartas advantage, Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy and this meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty, according to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War, in 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras, but his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, through his reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions — i. e. with equal rights for all —and established ostracism. The isonomic and isegoric democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, the 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly, headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The territory of the city was divided into thirty trittyes as follows, ten trittyes in the coastal region ten trittyes in the ἄστυ. A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one each of the three groups

12.
Hellenistic Greece
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During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt, cities such as Pergamon, Ephesus, Rhodes and Seleucia were also important, and increasing urbanization of the Eastern Mediterranean was characteristic of the time. The quests of Alexander had a number of consequences for the Greek city-states and it greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks, making the endless conflicts between the cities which had marked the 5th and 4th centuries BC seem petty and unimportant. It led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, the Greeks valued their local independence too much to consider actual unification, but they made several attempts to form federations through which they could hope to reassert their independence. Following Alexanders death a struggle for power broke out among his generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire, Macedon fell to Cassander, son of Alexanders leading general Antipater, who after several years of warfare made himself master of most of the rest of Greece. He founded a new Macedonian capital at Thessaloniki and was generally a constructive ruler, Cassanders power was challenged by Antigonus, ruler of Anatolia, who promised the Greek cities that he would restore their freedom if they supported him. This led to successful revolts against Cassanders local rulers, in 307 BC, Antigonuss son Demetrius captured Athens and restored its democratic system, which had been suppressed by Alexander. But in 301 BC a coalition of Cassander and the other Hellenistic kings defeated Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus, after Cassanders death in 298 BC, however, Demetrius seized the Macedonian throne and gained control of most of Greece. He was defeated by a coalition of Greek rulers in 285 BC. Lysimachus was in turn defeated and killed in 280 BC, the Macedonian throne then passed to Demetriuss son Antigonus II, who also defeated an invasion of the Greek lands by the Gauls, who at this time were living in the Balkans. The battle against the Gauls united the Antigonids of Macedon and the Seleucids of Antioch, an alliance which was directed against the wealthiest Hellenistic power. Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC, and his family retained the Macedonian throne until it was abolished by the Romans in 146 BC. Their control over the Greek city states was intermittent, however, since other rulers, particularly the Ptolemies, Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league. In 267 BC, Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Antigonus, in became the Chremonidian War. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions, the Aetolian League was restricted to the Peloponnese, but on being allowed to gain control of Thebes in 245 BC became a Macedonian ally. This marked the end of Athens as a actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 255 BC, Antigonus defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, in spite of their decreased political power and autonomy, the Greek city state or polis continued to be the basic form of political and social organization in Greece. Classical city states such as Athens and Ephesus grew and even thrived in this period, the Aetolians and the Achaeans developed strong federal states or leagues, which were governed by councils of city representatives and assemblies of league citizens

13.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period

14.
Byzantine Greece
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The history of Byzantine Greece mainly coincides with the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. The Greek peninsula became a Roman protectorate in 146 BC, Athens and other Greek cities revolted in 88 BC, and the peninsula was crushed by the Roman general Sulla. The Roman civil wars devastated the land even further, until Augustus organized the peninsula as the province of Achaea in 27 BC, Greece was a typical eastern province of the Roman Empire. Romans tended to be philhellenic and Greeks were generally loyal to Rome, life in Greece continued under the Roman Empire much the same as it had previously, and Greek continued to be the lingua franca in the Eastern and most important part of the Empire. Roman culture was influenced by classical Greek culture as Horace said. During that period, Greek intellectuals such as Galen or Apollodorus of Damascus were continuously being brought to Rome, within the city of Rome, Greek was spoken by Roman elites, particularly philosophers, and by lower, working classes such as sailors and merchants. The emperor Nero visited Greece in 66, and performed at the Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was, of course, honored with a victory in every contest, hadrian was also particularly fond of the Greeks, before he became emperor he served as eponymous archon of Athens. He also built his namesake arch there, and had a Greek lover, at the same time Greece and much of the rest of the Roman east came under the influence of Christianity. The apostle Paul had preached in Corinth and Athens, and Greece soon became one of the most highly Christianized areas of the empire, during the second and third centuries, Greece was divided into provinces including Achaea, Macedonia, Epirus vetus and Thracia. During the reign of Diocletian in the late 3rd century, the western Balkans were organized as a Roman diocese, under Constantine I Greece was part of the dioceses of Macedonia and Thrace. The eastern and southern Aegean islands formed the province of Insulae in the Diocese of Asia, Greece faced invasions from the Heruli, Goths, and Vandals during the reign of Theodosius I. Stilicho, who acted as regent for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century, Arcadius Chamberlain Eutropius allowed Alaric to enter Greece, and he looted Corinth, and the Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 and Alaric was made magister militum in Illyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built the Visigothic Empire in Iberia and southern France, Greece remained part of the relatively unified eastern half of the empire. Contrary to outdated visions of late antiquity, the Greek peninsula was most likely one of the most prosperous regions of the Roman, older scenarios of poverty, depopulation, barbarian destruction and civil decay have been revised in light of recent archaeological discoveries. In fact the polis, as an institution, appears to have remained prosperous until at least the sixth century, contemporary texts such as Hierocles Synecdemus affirm that in late Antiquity, Greece was highly urbanised and contained approximately 80 cities. Following the loss of Alexandria and Antioch to the Arabs, Thessaloniki became the Byzantine Empires second largest city, called the co-regent, the Greek peninsula remained one of the strongest centers of Christianity in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods

15.
Frankokratia
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The term derives from the fact that the Orthodox Greeks called the Western European Catholics Latins, most of whom were of French or Venetian origin. The Latin Empire, centered in Constantinople and encompassing Thrace and Bithynia and its territories were gradually reduced to little more than the capital, which was eventually captured by the Empire of Nicaea in 1261. Duchy of Philippopolis, fief of the Latin Empire in northern Thrace, lemnos formed a fief of the Latin Empire under the Venetian Navigajoso family from 1207 until conquered by the Byzantines in 1278. Its rulers bore the title of megadux of the Latin Empire, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, encompassing Macedonia and Thessaly. The brief existence of the Kingdom was almost continuously troubled by warfare with the Second Bulgarian Empire, eventually, it was conquered by the Despotate of Epirus. The County of Salona, centred at Salona, like Bodonitsa, was formed as a state of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. It came under Catalan and later Navarrese rule in the 14th century and it was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1410. The Marquisate of Bodonitsa, like Salona, was created as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. In 1335, the Venetian Giorgi family took control, and ruled until the Ottoman conquest in 1414, the Principality of Achaea, encompassing the Morea or Peloponnese peninsula. It quickly emerged as the strongest Crusader state, and prospered even after the demise of the Latin Empire and its main rival was the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, which eventually succeeded in conquering the Principality. It also exercised suzerainty over the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia, the Duchy of Athens, with its two capitals Thebes and Athens, and encompassing Attica, Boeotia, and parts of southern Thessaly. In 1311, the Duchy was conquered by the Catalan Company, and in 1388, it passed into the hands of the Florentine Acciaiuoli family, the Duchy of Naxos or of the Archipelago, founded by the Sanudo family, it encompassed most of the Cyclades. In 1383, it passed under the control of the Crispo family, the Duchy became an Ottoman vassal in 1537, and was finally annexed to the Ottoman Empire in 1579. The Triarchy of Negroponte, encompassing the island of Negroponte, originally a vassal of Thessalonica and it was fragmented into three baronies run each by two barons. This fragmentation enabled Venice to gain influence acting as mediators, by 1390 Venice had established direct control of the entire island, which remained in Venetian hands until 1470, when it was captured by the Ottomans. The County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos and it encompassed the Ionian Islands of Cephalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, and, from ca. Created as a vassal to the Kingdom of Sicily, it was ruled by the Orsini family from 1195 to 1335, the county was split between Venice and the Ottomans in 1479. Rhodes became the headquarters of the monastic order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John in 1310

16.
Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula

17.
Ottoman Greece
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Most of the areas which today are within modern Greeces borders were at some point in the past a part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by victory over the Serbs to its north, first, the Ottomans won the Battle of Maritsa in 1371. The Serb forces were led by the King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the father of Prince Marko. This was followed by another Ottoman victory in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, with no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans besieged and took Constantinople in 1453 and then advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458. The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule, the Cyclades islands, in the middle of the Aegean, were officially annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they were under vassal status since the 1530s. Cyprus fell in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1669, the Ionian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception of Kefalonia, and remained under the rule of the Republic of Venice. It was in the Ionian Islands where modern Greek statehood was born, Ottoman Greece was a multiethnic society as apart from Greeks and Turks, there were many Jews, Italians, Armenians, Serbs, Albanians, Roma, Bulgarians etc. However, the modern Western notion of multiculturalism, although at first glance appears to correspond to the system of millets, is considered to be incompatible with the Ottoman system, despite losing their political independence, the Greeks remained dominant in the fields of commerce and business. After the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto however, Greek ships often became the target of attacks by Catholic pirates. This period of Ottoman rule had an impact in Greek society. The Greek land-owning aristocracy that dominated the Byzantine Empire suffered a tragic fate. The new leading class in Ottoman Greece were the prokritoi called kocabaşis by the Ottomans, the prokritoi were essentially bureaucrats and tax collectors, and gained a negative reputation for corruption and nepotism. After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Despotate of the Morea was the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans, however, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland Greece. The only part of the Greek-speaking world that escaped Ottoman rule was the Ionian Islands, corfu withstood three major sieges in 1537,1571 and 1716 all of which resulted in the repulsion of the Ottomans. The consolidation of Ottoman rule was followed by two distinct trends of Greek migration and this trend had also effect on the creation of the modern Greek diaspora. The Sultan sat at the apex of the government of the Ottoman Empire, although he had the trappings of an absolute ruler, he was actually bound by tradition and convention. These restrictions imposed by tradition were mainly of a religious nature, indeed, the Quran was the main restriction on absolute rule by the sultan and in this way, the Quran served as a constitution. Ottoman rule of the provinces was characterized by two main functions, the local administrators within the provinces were to maintain a military establishment and to collect taxes

18.
History of modern Greece
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The establishment of Catholic Latin states on Greek soil, and the struggles of the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks against them, led to the emergence of a distinct Greek national identity. Ottoman control was largely absent in the interior of Greece. Rhodes fell in 1522, Cyprus in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1670, the Ionian Islands were only briefly ruled by the Ottomans, and remained primarily under the rule of Venice. The first large-scale insurrection against Ottoman rule was the Orlov Revolt of the early 1770s, as a result, especially in the aftermath of the French Revolution, liberal and nationalist ideas began to spread across the Greek lands. In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire, Greece was initially to be an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty, but by 1832, in the Treaty of Constantinople, it was recognized as a fully independent kingdom. In the meantime, the 3rd National Assembly of the Greek insurgents called upon Ioannis Kapodistrias, on his arrival, Kapodistrias launched a major reform and modernisation programme that covered all areas. Furthermore, he tried to undermine the authority of the clans that he considered the useless legacy of a bygone. The customs dues of the inhabitants of Hydra were the source of revenue for these municipalities. It appears that Kapodistrias had refused to convene the National Assembly and was ruling as a despot, the municipality of Hydra instructed Admiral Miaoulis and Alexandros Mavrokordatos to go to Poros and seize the Hellenic Navys fleet there. This Miaoulis did so with the intention of preventing a blockade of the islands, Kapodistrias called on the British and French residents to support him in putting down the rebellion, but this they refused to do. Nonetheless, an Admiral Rikord took his ships north to Poros, Colonel Kallergis took a half-trained force of Greek Army regulars and a force of irregulars in support. With less than 200 men, Miaoulis was unable to make much of a fight, Fort Heidek on Bourtzi Island was overrun by the regulars, encircled by the Russians in the harbor and Kallergis force on land, Poros surrendered. Miaoulis was forced to set charges in the flagship Hellas and the corvette Hydra to blow them up when he, Kallergis men were enraged by the loss of the ships and sacked Poros, carrying off plunder to Nauplion. The loss of the best ships in the fleet crippled the Hellenic Navy for many years and he did finally call the National Assembly, but his other actions triggered more opposition and that led to his downfall. In 1831, Kapodistrias ordered the imprisonment of Petrobey Mavromichalis, the Bey of the Mani Peninsula, Ioannis Kapodistrias was succeeded as Governor by his younger brother, Augustinos Kapodistrias. Augustinos ruled only for six months, during which the country was very much plunged into chaos, the protocol also dealt with the way in which a Regency was to be managed until Otto of Bavaria reached his majority to assume the throne of Greece. The Ottoman Empire was indemnified in the sum of 40,000,000 piastres for the loss of territory in the new kingdom. Ottos reign would prove troubled, but he managed to hang on for 30 years before he and his wife, Queen Amalia, left the way they came

19.
Septinsular Republic
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The Septinsular Republic was an island republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands. It succeeded the previous French departments of Greece and it was the first time Greeks had been granted even limited self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1460. In 1807, the republic was ceded to Napoleons First French Empire, the British gradually took control of the islands, and following the Treaty of Paris, the islands were formally organised into the United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection. The seven islands constituting the Republic were, Corfu Paxi Lefkada Cefalonia Ithaca Zakynthos Kythira By the late 18th century, with the Treaty of Leoben, the French Republic gained the islands, a move finalised with the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio, which formally abolished the Venetian state. The islands now formed part of the départements Mer-Égée, Ithaque, the French then proceeded to strengthen the defences of Corfu. By the end of the 18th century, it was the strongest fort in Europe, despite several progressive measures adopted by the French administration, heavy taxation and the undisciplined behaviour of French soldiers soon alienated the population. This discontent was used by a joint Russo-Ottoman force under Admiral Ushakov to evict the French from the islands, in March 1799, the city of Corfu fell after a four-month siege, ending French rule. This was the beginning of the Septinsular Republic, in 1800, the so-called Byzantine Constitution was approved in Constantinople by the Sultan, establishing the Septinsular Republic as a tributary state to the Ottoman Empire. The winged Lion of St. Mark on its flag indicated that it was supposed to be a state to the Venetian Republic. The Republic, according to the first article of the constitution, is one and aristocratic, La Repubblica delle Sette Isole Unite è una, the Republic existed practically as a Russian protectorate largely because the population saw the Russians as their Orthodox co-religionists. Jervis gives a copy of the constitution in his book, the franchise was restricted to males of legitimate Christian birth on the islands, who did not keep a shop or practise any mechanical art and could read and write. They also required a yearly income which varied between the islands from 1800 ducats on Corfu to 315 ducats on Ithaca. People with the franchise are normally referred to as nobles, the official language was at first the Italian language and then in 1803 Greek became, along with Italian, one of the two official languages of the Republic. During the Venetian period, Italian was used for purposes in the islands but it was also widely spoken in the cities. The only island in which Italian had a wider spread was Cefalonia, the constitution of the Septinsular Republic was printed in Greek by the patriarchal press in Constantinople, using many loanwords from Italian for technical terms. However, the new constitution approved in 1803 was drafted in Italian and this issue was considered to be so important that it was even given a separate article in the constitution. According to the article, Greek was scheduled to replace Italian as the language in public acts by the year 1820. Most of the people on these islands during this period were Christians, with a number of Jews on Corfu, Zante

20.
Greek War of Independence
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The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, during this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control. In 1814, an organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, the first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 and this declaration was the start of a spring of revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in revolt against the Turks and by October 1821. The Peloponnesian revolt was followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea, tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. In the meantime, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese, and Athens had been retaken. Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers—Russia, Britain and France—decided to intervene in the conflict and each sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the battle began after a tense week-long standoff, ending in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in the Treaty of Constantinople of May 1832, the Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March. The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent fall of the states of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty. After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects under the Ottoman ruling class. Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and all of the Latins to aid the Greeks against the abominable, monstrous, however, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. The Greek Revolution was not an event, numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout the history of the Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century there was resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere

21.
First Hellenic Republic
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The First Hellenic Republic is a term used to refer to the provisional Greek state during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. In the first stages of the 1821 uprising, various areas elected their own regional governing councils, the councils continued in existence however, and central authority was not firmly established until 1824/1825. Ottoman refusal to accept these terms led to the Battle of Navarino, in 1827, the Third National Assembly at Troezen established the Hellenic State and selected Count Ioannis Kapodistrias as Governor of Greece. Therefore, this period is often called Governorate, Kapodistrias was assassinated by political rivals in 1831, plunging the country into renewed civil strife. He was succeeded by his brother Augustinos, who was forced to resign six months

22.
Kingdom of Greece
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The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 at the Convention of London by the Great Powers. It was internationally recognized by the Treaty of Constantinople, where it also secured full independence from the Ottoman Empire and this event also marked the birth of the first, fully independent, Greek state since the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in the mid-15th century. The Kingdom succeeded from the Greek provisional governments after the Greek War of Independence, in 1924 the monarchy was abolished, and the Second Hellenic Republic was established. The restored Kingdom of Greece lasted from 1935 to 1973, the Kingdom was again dissolved in the aftermath of the seven-year military dictatorship, and the Third Republic, the current Greek government, came to be. Most of Greece gradually became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, the Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by victory over the Serbs to its north. This was followed by a draw in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, with no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458. The Greeks held out in the Peloponnese until 1460, and the Venetians and Genoese clung to some of the islands, the mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks to flee foreign rule and engage in guerrilla warfare. Cyprus fell in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1670, the Ionian Islands were only briefly ruled by the Ottomans, and remained primarily under the rule of Venice. In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire, following a protracted struggle, the autonomy of Greece was first recognized by the Great Powers in 1828, full independence was recognized in 1830. Count Ioannis Kapodistrias became Governor of Greece in 1827, but was assassinated in 1831, at the insistence of the Powers, the 1832 Treaty of London made Greece a monarchy. Pedro of Braganza, Prince Royal of Portugal, Brazil, Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria was chosen as its first King. Otto arrived at the capital, Nafplion, in 1833 aboard a British warship. Ottos reign would prove troubled, but managed to last for 30 years before he and his wife, Queen Amalia, left the way they came, nevertheless, they laid the foundations of a Greek administration, army, justice system and education system. Otto was sincere in his desire to give Greece good government, in addition, the new Kingdom tried to eliminate the traditional banditry, something that in many cases meant conflict with some old revolutionary fighters who continued to exercise this practice. But Greece still had no legislature and no constitution, Greek discontent grew until a revolt broke out in Athens in September 1843. Otto agreed to grant a constitution, and convened a National Assembly which met in November, the new constitution created a bicameral parliament, consisting of an Assembly and a Senate. Power then passed into the hands of a group of politicians, Greek politics in the 19th century was dominated by the national question. Greeks dreamed of liberating them all and reconstituting a state embracing all the Greek lands and this was called the Great Idea, and it was sustained by almost continuous rebellions against Ottoman rule in Greek-speaking territories, particularly Crete, Thessaly and Macedonia

23.
National Schism
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Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would favor the plans of the Central Powers. The disagreement had wider implications, since it would affect the character. After intense diplomatic negotiations and a confrontation in Athens between Allied and royalist forces the king abdicated on 11 June 1917, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens on 29 May 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined the war on the side of the Allies, emerging victorious, many reformists and liberals viewed meddling by the monarchy in politics as deleterious. The negative public attitude towards the monarchy was strengthened by the defeat of the Greek army, headed by Constantine, many of these hopes for reform were also shared by young officers in the Hellenic Army, who felt humiliated by the defeat, and who were influenced by republicanism. A Military League was formed, and on 15 August 1909, the movement, which demanded reforms in government and military affairs, was widely supported by the public, King George was forced to give in to the militarys demands. He appointed Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis as Prime Minister and accepted the dismissal of the Princes from the military, with Venizelos arrival, the League was sidelined, and the energetic and relatively young politician soon dominated Greek political life. His government carried out a number of overdue reforms, including the creation of a revised constitution. Constantine, now king, was being hailed as laurel-crowned and Bulgar-slayer and it was however during this war that the first tension between Constantine and Venizelos surfaced, in a dispute over the armys course following the victory at Sarantaporo. Constantine wanted to march due north, towards Monastir, while Venizelos was anxious that the army should turn east, towards the important city. The anxiety of Venizelos was doubled by the fact that the Bulgarians had also set their eyes on the city, the most important in Macedonia, eventually Venizelos prevailed, and the Greeks captured the city only a few hours before the arrival of the Bulgarians. As the Great War began, the Greek authorities had to choose between neutrality and aligning themselves with the Allied forces. Hence, neutrality was the course favored by most pro-German Greeks, including the senior, German-educated, leadership of the General Staff, King Constantines German affiliations were exaggerated in the Ententes propaganda during the war. It is true that Queen Sofia was the sister of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, Greece had an ongoing mutual defense pact with Serbia, a member of the Allied forces, who were asking for support after they were invaded by Austria-Hungary. However, Constantine believed it was in the interests of Greece to remain neutral. The Prime Minister, Venizelos, was strongly in favor of joining the Entente, as he believed that Greece would gain new lands, in January 1915, in an attempt to convince the Greeks to side with them, Britain offered Greece post-war concessions in Asia Minor. Venizelos felt this was much in Greeces interests and attempted to force a bill through the Greek parliament to join the Allies. He also adivsed King Constantine to convene the Crown Council, which he did and it met twice, on February 18 and on February 20

24.
Second Hellenic Republic
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The Second Hellenic Republic is the historiographical term for the political regime of Greece between 1924 and 1935. It followed from the period of the monarchy under the monarchs of the House of Glücksburg. The Second Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924, in the aftermath of Greeces defeat by Turkey in the Asia Minor Campaign, during its brief existence, the Second Republic proved unstable. The cleavage in society extended to cultural and social issues such as differences over the use of Greek language to architectural styles, to this polarization was added the destabilizing involvement of the military in politics which resulted in several coups and attempted coups. The economy was in following a decade of warfare and was unable to support the 1.5 million refugees from the population exchange with Turkey. Despite the efforts of the reformist government of Eleftherios Venizelos in 1928–1932, the electoral victory of the Peoples Party in 1933, and two failed Venizelist coups, paved the way to the restoration of the reign of King George II. After the defeat of Greece by the Turkish National Movement of 1922, under Venizelist officers like Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine I was again forced to abdicate, and died in exile in 1923. His eldest son and successor, King George II, was soon asked by the parliament to leave Greece so the nation could decide what form of government it should adopt. In a 1924 plebiscite, Greeks voted to create a republic and these events marked the culmination of a process that had begun in 1915 between King Constantine and his political nemesis, Eleftherios Venizelos. The first President of the Hellenic Republic was Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis and he was succeeded by the coups leader, General Theodoros Pangalos, who was likewise deposed by the military five months later after embroiling Greece in the War of the Stray Dog. Kountouriotis was reinstated and reelected to the office in 1929, but was forced to resign for health reasons later that year and he was succeeded by Alexandros Zaimis, who served until the restoration of the monarchy in 1935. As the prospect of the return of the monarchy became more likely, Venizelist officers launched a coup in March 1935, which was suppressed by General Georgios Kondylis. On October 10,1935, the chiefs of the Armed Forces overthrew the government of Panagis Tsaldaris, later that day, Kondylis forced Zaimis himself to resign, declared himself regent and abolished the republic. A heavily rigged plebiscite occurred on 3 November which resulted in an implausible 98 percent supporting the return of the monarchy, King George II returned to Athens on 23 November, with Kondylis as prime minister. History of the Hellenic Republic Hellenic Parliament - Constitutional History of Greece Greece during the Interwar Period, 1923-1940, from the Foundation of the Hellenic World

25.
4th of August Regime
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The 4th of August Regime, commonly also known as the Metaxas Regime, was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941. It took its name from a self-coup carried out by Metaxas, with the support of King George II, lacking a popular base, after Metaxas death in January 1941 the regime hinged entirely on the King. Metaxas imposed his regime primarily to fight the turbulent social situation prevalent in Greece in the 1930s, the king re-established the monarchy in the country, but the parliament, split into incompatible factions, was unable to shape a clear political majority so that the government could govern. In one of his first speeches, Metaxas announced, I have decided to all the power I need for saving Greece from the catastrophes which threaten her. Thus the Metaxas dictatorship was born, and the period of time which would follow was named after the day Metaxas rose to absolute power, the new regime was backed by small extreme political parties, and by conservatives expecting a crackdown on the communists. The roots of Metaxas New State were sought in Greeces classical history, Metaxas thought Hellenic nationalism would galvanize the heathen values of ancient Greece, specifically those of Sparta, along with the Christian values of the Medieval empire of Byzantium. Ancient Macedonia was also glorified as the first political unifier of the Hellenes, as its main symbol, the youth organization of the regime chose the labrys/pelekys, the symbol of ancient Minoan Crete. The traditional Greek values of Country, Loyalty, Family and Religion, Metaxas considered António Salazars Estado Novo of Portugal his main inspiration and surrounded himself with elements from this and other dictatorial regimes of the time. Thus his main slogan was also New State and the 4th of August regime used its own military-like uniforms, greetings, songs and rituals. The Metaxas regime sought to comprehensively change Greece, and therefore instituted controls on Greek society, politics, language, in each of these, the Metaxas government resembled more closely the policies that Spain would adopt later on than those of their contemporaries Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. Metaxas policies such as the censorship of the media, the banning of political parties, as its far-right contemporaries Italy and Germany, the Greek State also had its political police force, the Asfaleia, based upon the Gestapo. The objective of Asfaleia was to secure public order, the regime also repressed the rebetiko music due to the uncompromising lyrics and favoured the traditional Greek folk music. Hashish dens, baglamas and bouzouki were banned, or at least playing in the eastern-style manner, soon after its inception the regime severely repressed the communists and leftists. About 15,000 people were arrested and jailed, or exiled for political reasons, Metaxas regime forced the Communist party underground, and also attempted to dismantle the old system of loyalties of the Royalist and Venizelist parties. Those major forces however remained, as they had for the preceding decades, while Metaxas regime did play up a supposed communist threat in order to justify its repression, the regime is not known to have committed political murders and did not instate the death penalty. Dissidents were, rather, usually banished to tiny islands in the Aegean sea, for example, the liberal leader George Papandreou was exiled to Andros. The Greek Communist Party, meanwhile, which had already been outlawed, remained intact, legal restrictions against it were ended in 1974 during metapolitefsi. Metaxas, educated in German Empire and admirer of the German culture, in order to keep and maintain the values of the regime in future years, Metaxas gave birth to the Ethniki Organosi Neolaias

26.
Axis occupation of Greece
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The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded Greece to assist its ally, Fascist Italy, which had been at war with Greece since October 1940. Following the conquest of Crete, all of Greece was occupied by June 1941, the occupation in the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria were forced to withdraw under Allied pressure in early October 1944. However, German garrisons remained in control of Crete and some other Aegean islands until after the end of World War II in Europe, surrendering these islands in May, Nazi Germany was forced to an intervention on its allys behalf in southern Europe. As result, the Greek government went into exile, and an Axis collaborationist puppet government was established in the country, other regions of the country were given to Germanys partners, Italy and Bulgaria. The occupation ruined the Greek economy and brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry, infrastructure, ports, roads, railways and bridges, forests and other natural resources and loss of civilian life. Over 40,000 civilians died in Athens alone from starvation, tens of thousands more died because of reprisals by Nazis, at the same time the Greek Resistance, one of the most effective resistance movements in Occupied Europe, was formed. These resistance groups launched attacks against the occupying powers, fought against the collaborationist Security Battalions. By late 1943 the resistance began to fight amongst themselves. When liberation of the came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of extreme political polarization. In the early morning hours of 28 October 1940, Italian Ambassador Emmanuel Grazzi awoke Greek Premier Ioannis Metaxas, Metaxas rejected the ultimatum and Italian forces invaded Greek territory from Italian-occupied Albania less than three hours later. The Hellenic Army proved to be an opponent, and successfully exploited the mountainous terrain of Epirus. The Hellenic forces counterattacked and forced the Italians to retreat, by mid-December, the Greeks had occupied nearly one-quarter of Albania, before Italian reinforcements and the harsh winter stemmed the Greek advance. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, fifteen of the 21 Greek divisions were deployed against the Italians, so only six divisions were facing the attack from German troops in the Metaxas Line during the first days of April. Greece received help from British Commonwealth troops, moved from Libya on the orders of Winston Churchill, on 6 April 1941, Germany came to the aid of Italy and invaded Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Greek and British Commonwealth troops fought back but were overwhelmed, the Bulgarians occupied territory between the Strymon River and a line of demarcation running through Alexandroupoli and Svilengrad west of the Evros River. The Greek capital Athens fell on 27 April, and by 1 June, after the capture of Crete, after the invasion King George II fled, first to Crete and then to Cairo. A nominally right-wing Greek government ruled from Athens, but it was a puppet of the occupiers, the occupation of Greece was divided among Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. German forces occupied the most strategically important areas, namely Athens, Thessaloniki with Central Macedonia and several Aegean Islands, initially, the German zone was ruled by the ambassador Günther Altenburg of the German Foreign Office and Field Marshal Wilhelm List

27.
Greek Civil War
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The Greek Civil War was fought in Greece from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek government army, and the Democratic Army of Greece. The fighting resulted in the defeat of the Communist insurgents by the government forces, the civil war resulted from a highly polarized struggle between left and right ideologies that started in 1943. From 1944 each side targeted the power vacuum that the end of German-Italian occupation during World War II left, the struggle became one of the first conflicts of the Cold War and represents the first example of Cold War power postwar involvement in the internal politics of a foreign country. The first signs of the war occurred in 1942 to 1944. The immediate prelude of the war took place in Athens, on December 3,1944. A bloody battle erupted after Greek government gendarmes, with British forces standing in the background, opened fire on a massive unarmed pro-EAM rally, killing 28 demonstrators and injuring dozens. The rally had been organised against the impunity of the collaborators and the general disarmament ultimatum, signed by Ronald Scobie, the battle lasted 33 days and resulted in the defeat of the EAM after the heavily reinforced British forces sided with the Greek government. All the while, White Terror was unleashed against the supporters of the left, the war erupted in 1946, when forces of former ELAS partisans who found shelter in their hideouts and were controlled by the KKE organized the DSE and its High Command headquarters. The Communists formed a government in December 1947 and used the DSE as the military branch of this government. The neighboring communist states of Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria offered logistical support to this provisional government, the final victory of the western-allied government forces led to Greeces membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean Sea for the entire Cold War. Western leaders encouraged and even coerced King George II of Greece to appoint a moderate cabinet, nevertheless, the exiled governments inability to influence affairs inside Greece rendered it irrelevant in the minds of most Greek people. At the same time, the Germans set up a collaborationist government in Athens, the puppet regime was further undermined when economic mismanagement in wartime conditions created runaway inflation, acute food shortages and famine among the civilian population. The power vacuum that the occupation created was filled by several resistance movements that ranged from royalist to communist ideologies, resistance was born first in eastern Macedonia and Thrace, where Bulgarian troops occupied Greek territory. Soon large demonstrations were organized in cities by the Defenders of Northern Greece. However, the largest group to emerge was the National Liberation Front, proclaiming that it followed the Soviet policy of creating a broad united front against fascism, EAM won the support of many noncommunist patriots. These resistance groups launched attacks against the powers and set up large espionage networks. When liberation came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of crisis, although controlled by the KKE, the organization had democratic republican rhetoric. Its military wing, the Greek Peoples Liberation Army was founded in February 1942, Aris Velouchiotis, a member of KKEs Central Committee, was nominated Chief of the ELAS High Command

28.
Greek art
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Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods. Greek art is mainly five forms, architecture, sculpture, painting, artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilizations, both of which were influenced by local traditions and the art of ancient Egypt. There are three divisions of the stages of later ancient Greek art that correspond roughly with historical periods of the same names. These are the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic, the Archaic period is usually dated from 1000 BC. Of course, different forms of art developed at different speeds in different parts of the Greek world, there was no sharp transition from one artistic period to another. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models, following the Renaissance in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists. Pottery was either red with black designs or black with red designs, Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1452. It can also be used for the art of people of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of Ottoman Empire after 1453, in some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. Byzantine art grew from the art of ancient Greece and, at least before 1453, never lost sight of its classical heritage, the most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of ancient Greek art was replaced by the Christian ethic. If the purpose of art was the glorification of man. One of the most important forms of Byzantine art was, and still is, like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, and also saw the first signiand the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. The Heptanese School of painting succeeded the Cretan School as the school of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669. Like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, the school was based in the Ionian Islands, which were not part of Ottoman Greece, from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century. Modern Greek art, after the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, after centuries of Ottoman rule, few opportunities for an education in the arts existed in the newly independent Greece, so studying abroad was imperative for artists. Munich, as an important international center for the arts at that time, was the place where the majority of the Greek artists of the 19th century chose to study, later on, they would return to Greece and pass on their knowledge. Both academic and personal bonds developed between early Greek painters and Munich artistry giving birth to the Greek Munich School, nikolaos Gysis was an important teacher and artist at the Munich Academy and he soon became a leading figure among Greek artists. Many of these Munich School artists chose subjects such as everyday Greek life, local customs, several important painters emerged at this time

29.
Constitutional history of Greece
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In the modern history of Greece, starting from the Greek War of Independence, the Constitution of 1975/1986/2001 is the last in a series of democratically adopted Constitutions. During the Greek War of Independence, three constitutional texts were adopted by the Greek National Assemblies, the representative political gatherings of the Greek revolutionaries. King Otto governed for more than 10 years without any constitutional restrictions, on 3 September 1843, the infantry, led by Colonel Dimitrios Kallergis and the Revolutionary captain Ioannis Makriyannis, assembled in the square in front of the palace in Athens. Eventually joined by much of the population of the small capital, left with little recourse, King Otto gave in to the pressure and agreed to the demands of the crowd over the objections of his opinionated Queen. This square was renamed to Constitution Square to commemorate the events of September 1843, the Greek Constitution of 1844 defined Greece as a constitutional monarchy, providing for a bicameral parliament, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. The Greek Constitution of 1864 was somewhat more liberal, and transferred most of the power to the parliament. In 1874 Charilaos Trikoupis published a manifesto entitled Whos to blame, naming King George I as the answer. Specifically, he condemned the king for bypassing parliamentary opinion in his selection of Prime Ministers, the article landed him briefly in jail, but also boosted his popularity significantly. A year later, on 8 May 1874 he mustered a parliamentary plurality, thanks to Trikoupis article, a new constitutional principle was recognized and implemented, the king was required to give the largest party in parliament first choice of forming a government. In 1911 Eleftherios Venizelos amended 54 of the 110 articles of the Constitution, nevertheless, the National schism of 1916 caused a huge constitutional crisis, as two governments were formed, one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki. The Constitution of 1925 provided for a Republic in accordance with the results of the plebiscite of 1924, on 24 August 1926, a counter-coup deposed him and Pavlos Kountouriotis returned as President. After the plebiscite of 1935, King George II was restored, instead, the Constitution of 1911 was restored, ostensibly on a temporary basis. The elections of 1936 had produced a deadlock and, thereby. Widespread industrial unrest in May allowed Metaxas to declare a state of emergency, on 4 August, he suspended the parliament indefinitely and suspended various articles of the constitution, with the kings approval. For all intents and purposes, Metaxas was now a dictator, no constitutional amendment was adopted before Germany invaded Greece in 1941. After the end of the Second World War, King George II was once restored by virtue of the plebiscite of 1946. The implications of the Greek Civil War did not allow the ratification of the liberal Draft Constitution of 1948, a more conservative Constitution was passed in 1952, which imposed restrictions on basic human rights and banned the Communist Party of Greece. On 21 April 1967, a coup took place by right-wing officers, an attempted counter-coup by King Constantine II in December failed, forcing him to leave the country

30.
Names of the Greeks
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The Greeks have been identified by many ethnonyms. The most common native ethnonym is Hellen, pl. Hellenes, among his descendants are also mentioned the Graeci and the Makedones. The first Greek-speaking people, called Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, Homer refers to Achaeans as the dominant tribe during the Trojan war period usually dated to the 12th-11th centuries BC, using Hellenes to describe a relatively small tribe in Thessaly. The Dorians, an important Greek-speaking group appeared roughly at that time, according to the Greek tradition, the Graeci were renamed Hellenes probably with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan war. The Persians used the name Yaunas after the Ionians, a Greek tribe who occupied areas on the coasts of western Asia Minor and the term was used later in Hebrew, Arabic. The word entered the languages of the Indian subcontinent as the Yona, a unique form is used in Georgian, where the Greeks are called Berdzeni. By Late Antiquity, the Greeks referred to themselves as Graikoi and Rhomaioi/Romioi the latter of which was used virtually all Greeks were Roman citizens after 212 CE. The term Hellene became applied to the followers of the religion after the establishment of Christianity by Theodosius I. Although Homer refers to a union of the Greek kingdoms under the leadership of the king of Mycenea during the Trojan War, most of the Mycenean palaces were destroyed at the end of the 13th century BC. It seems that the myth of Hellen, the patriarch of Hellenes was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other, the name Hellenes was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League, an ancient association of Greek tribes. According to legend it was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous Amphictyon and it had twelve founders and was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi and of Demeter near Thermopylae. Among the descendants of Hellen are mentioned Aeolus, Ion, Achaeus, Dorus, Graecos and it seems that the Macedonians were a Dorian tribe which stayed behind in Macedonia when the main Dorian tribes moved to the south. The Greek cultural tradition has been continuous for centuries, it has always centered on those who were wealthy. They have defined the Greeks as those being in some similar to themselves, by descent, speech, culture. The evidence from before this period, such as it is, in Homers Iliad, the Greek allied forces are described under three different names, often used interchangeably, Argives, Danaans and Achaeans. Argives is an annotation drawn from the most prominent city of the Achaeans, danaos is the name attributed to a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus. There is currently no satisfactory etymology for the name Hellenes, some scholars assert that the name of the priests of Zeus in Dodona, Selloi, changed to Sellanes and then to Hellanes and Hellenes. The land was inhabited by Selloi and Graeci, who came to be known as Hellenes

31.
Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania

32.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum

33.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea

34.
Iberian War
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The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia. After the Anastasian War, a truce was agreed on. Even during the war in 505, Emperor Anastasius I had already started fortifying Dara as a counter to the Persian fortress city of Nisibis for a looming conflict. The proposal was greeted with enthusiasm by the Roman Emperor and his nephew, Justinian. Despite the breakdown of the negotiations, it was not until 530 that full-scale warfare on the eastern frontier broke out. In the intervening years, the two preferred to wage war by proxy, through Arab allies in the south and Huns in the north. Tensions between the two powers were heightened by the defection of the Iberian king Gourgen to the Romans. Gourgen received pledges by Justin I that he would defend Iberia, following the emperor Justin Is death in 527, Justinian I succeeded to the imperial throne. In 528, the Persians pressed on from Iberia to capture forts in eastern Lazica, the Roman failure at Callinicum was followed by a commission of inquiry, the result of which was the dismissal of Belisarius from his post. Azarethes, the Persians commander at Callinicum, was stripped of his ranks due to his failure to actually capture any significant fortification. Justinians envoy, Hermogenes, visited Kavadh immediately after the Battle of Callinicum to re-open negotiations, Justinian therefore took steps to bolster the Roman position, trying, at the same time, to engage Kavadh diplomatically. Kavadh died shortly afterwards, and in spring 532 new negotiations began between the Roman envoys and the new Persian king, Khosrau I, who needed to devote his attention to secure his own position. The two sides came to an agreement, and the Eternal Peace, which lasted less than eight years, was signed in September 532. Both sides agreed to all occupied territories and the Romans to make a one-off payment of 110 centenaria. The Romans recovered the Lazic forts, Iberia remained in Persian hands, but the Iberians who had left their country were allowed to remain in Roman territory or to return to their native land

35.
Battle of Dara
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The Battle of Dara was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanids in 530. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War, the Byzantine Empire was at war with the Sassanids from 527, supposedly because Kavadh I had tried to force the Iberians to become Zoroastrians. The Iberian king fled from Kavadh, but Kavadh tried to make peace with the Byzantines, Justin and his nephew and heir, Justinian I, refused and sent his generals Sittas and Belisarius into Persia, where they were initially defeated. Justinian tried to negotiate but Kavadh instead sent 40,000 men towards Dara in 529, despite being outnumbered, Belisarius decided to give battle to the numerically superior Persians. He dug a number of ditches to block the Persian cavalry and these were pushed forward on either flank of his position, while his center was refused back. Here he placed his infantry behind the center ditch, being placed close enough to the walls of the fortress to provide supporting fire from the city battlements. On the left and right flanks were the Byzantine cavalry, of questionable quality, supporting them on their interior flanks were small bodies of Huns,300 Hun cavalry under Sunicas and Aigan supporting the left, and as many more Huns on the right under Simmas and Ascan. Belisarius also placed a body of Heruli cavalry under Pharas in ambush position off of his left flank, a reserve composed of his own bucellarii household cavalry was held behind his center and commanded by John the Armenian, his trusted lieutenant and boyhood friend. On the first day, there was no engagement. One particular combat involved a Persian knight, who challenged Belisarius to a single combat, Andreas, who had been secretly training with Belisarius own household troopers, killed not only this Persian champion, but also a second challenger later in the day. The Persians then withdrew to Ammodius for the night, after the first day of skirmishes, Belisarius sent a letter to the Persian commander. Rather than fight a battle, he believed it was best to avoid conflict, the letter read, The first blessing is peace, as is agreed by all men who have even a small share of reason. The best general, therefore, is one which is able to bring about peace from war. The letter, however, fell on deaf ears and battle resumed, on the second day of the battle,10,000 more Persian troops arrived from Nisibis. The Sassanid and Byzantine light infantry exchanged fire resulting in casualties on each side. The Persians formed two lines, the flank under Pityaxes and the left under Baresamanes. The first wave of the Persian attack was directed against the Byzantine left flank, the Persians forced a crossing of the ditch, pushing back the Byzantine cavalry. The Persians then attacked the Byzantine right wing, where Perozes sent the Sassanid Zhayedan, also known as the Immortals, the Byzantine cavalry and infantry defending the ditch were pushed back here as they had been on the right

36.
Vandalic War
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The Vandalic War was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Vandalic Kingdom of Carthage, in 533–534. It was the first of Justinian Is wars of reconquest of the lost Western Roman Empire, the Vandals had occupied Roman North Africa in the early 5th century, and established an independent kingdom there. Under their first king, Geiseric, the formidable Vandal navy carried out attacks across the Mediterranean, sacked Rome. In 530, a coup in Carthage overthrew the pro-Roman Hilderic. Justinian took advantage of, or even instigated, rebellions in the remote Vandal provinces of Sardinia and Tripolitania, the Vandal king gathered his forces and met the Roman army at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, on 13 September. Gelimers elaborate plan to encircle and destroy the Roman army came close to success, Gelimer withdrew to Bulla Regia, where he gathered his remaining strength, including the army of Tzazon, which returned from Sardinia. In December, Gelimer advanced towards Carthage and met the Romans at the Battle of Tricamarum, the battle resulted in a Roman victory and the death of Tzazon. Gelimer fled to a mountain fortress, where he was blockaded until he surrendered in the spring. Imperial control scarcely reached beyond the old Vandal kingdom, however, the new province was shaken by the wars with the Moors and military rebellions, and it was not until 548 that peace was restored and Roman government firmly established. Thus, in May 429, Geiseric crossed the straits of Gibraltar with his entire people, geiserics Vandals and Alans, however, had their own plans, and aimed to conquer the African provinces outright. Their possession of Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis and most of Numidia was recognized in 435 by the Western Roman court, warfare soon recommenced, and in October 439, the capital of Africa, Carthage, fell to the Vandals. These events marked the foundation of the Vandalic Kingdom, as the Vandals made Carthage their capital, Sicily barely escaped the same fate through the presence there of Ricimer. In the aftermath of disaster, and following further Vandal raids against the shores of Greece. Whereas the kings of Western Europe continued to pay deference to the emperors and minted coinage with their portraits, in addition, the Vandals—like most Germanics, adherents of Arianism—persecuted the Chalcedonian majority of the local population, especially in the reigns of Huneric and Gunthamund. In 523, Hilderic, the son of Huneric, ascended the throne at Carthage, Justinian evidently hoped that this rapprochement would lead to the peaceful subordination of the Vandal state to his empire. Justinian seized the opportunity, demanding Hilderics restoration, with Gelimer predictably refusing to do so, Justinian then demanded Hilderics release to Constantinople, threatening war otherwise. Geiseric was unwilling to surrender a rival claimant to Justinian, who could use him to stir up trouble in his kingdom and he consequently refused Justinians demand on the grounds that this was an internal matter among the Vandals. Justinian now had his pretext, and with peace restored on his eastern frontier with Sassanid Persia in 532, he started assembling an invasion force

37.
Battle of Ad Decimum
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The Battle of Ad Decimum took place on September 13,533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, and the Byzantine Empire, under the command of general Belisarius. This event and events in the year are sometimes jointly referred to as the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantine victory marked the beginning of the end for the Vandals, the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa was ruled by King Hilderic. His reign was noteworthy for the excellent relations with the Byzantine Empire ruled by emperor Justinian I. Hilderic allowed a new Catholic bishop to take office in the Vandal capital of Carthage, Hilderic rejected the Arian Christianity that most Vandals followed. However, in 531, Hilderic was overthrown and killed by his cousin Gelimer, Gelimer began persecuting non Arian Vandals, and many fled to the Byzantine Empire. Justinian sent Byzantine general Belisarius to reconquer the former Roman province of North Africa, on Midsummer Day 533 the expedition set off. It consisted of 5,000 cavalry and twice as many infantry- at least half of them barbarian mercenaries, Ad Decimum, was simply a marker along the Mediterranean coast 10 miles south of Carthage. Gelimer, with 11,000 men under his command, had advance warning of the approach of Belisarius 15, 000-man army and chose to take a strong position along the road to Carthage near the post marker. He divided his forces, sending 2,000 men under his nephew Gibamund across a salt pan in an effort to flank Belisarius army, another Vandal force, under Gelimers brother Ammatas, was assigned to initiate a holding action at a defile near Ad Decimum. If everything worked well, Gelimers 7, 000-man main body would follow Gibamund around the Byzantine left flank, Gibamund failed to accomplish his mission, as a force of Byzantine and Hun mercenaries drove his 2, 000-man force off and killed him. Ammatas also failed, he arrived at the defile with his men still strung out along the back to Carthage. The Romans pursued his men all the way to the gates of Carthage itself, Gelimers main force, however, inflicted serious casualties on the Byzantine troops along the main road. The Byzantine mercenary cavalry was routed by the Vandals, and even though Gelimer was outnumbered and it appeared as though the Vandals would win the battle. Instead, the Vandal attack was weakened while Gelimer buried his brother on the battlefield, given a respite, Belisarius was able to regroup his forces south of Ad Decimum and launch a counterattack, which drove the Vandals back and soon routed them. Gelimer was forced to abandon Carthage, Belisarius camped near the site of the battle, not wanting to be too close to the city at night. They found the gates to the city open, and the army was generally welcomed, Belisarius went straight to the palace and sat on the throne of the Vandal King. He then set about rebuilding the fortifications of the city, and his fleet sought shelter in the Lake of Tunis, after a second defeat at the Battle of Tricamarum later in the year, the Vandal kingdom was all but ended

38.
Battle of Taginae
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From as early as 549 the Emperor Justinian I had planned to dispatch a major army to Italy to conclude the protracted war with the Ostrogoths initiated in 535. The imperial chamberlain Narses was appointed to command in mid 551, the following spring Narses led this Byzantine army around the coast of the Adriatic as far as Ancona, and then turned inland aiming to march down the Via Flaminia to Rome. Near the village of Taginae, the Byzantines encountered the Ostrogothic army commanded by King Totila, finding himself considerably outnumbered, Totila ostensibly entered into negotiations while planning a surprise attack, but Narses was not fooled by this stratagem. Although he enjoyed superiority in numbers, Narses deployed his army in a defensive position. In the centre he massed the large body of Germanic mercenaries dismounted in a dense formation, and placed the Byzantine troops to either side. On each wing he stationed 4,000 foot-archers, in one such occasion, Totila sent a Byzantine deserter named Coccas out to challenge any Byzantine to single combat. Coccas was large and immensely strong and he had a reputation among the Goths as a ruthless and powerful fighter. An Armenian named Anzalas, one of Narses bodyguards, answered the challenge, Coccas charged at Anzalas, but at the last moment, Anzalas swerved his horse and stabbed the Gothic champion in the side. It was not the most auspicious omen for the Ostrogoths, however, the Ostrogothic King had another delaying tactic. Both armies watched as Totila, dressed in shining purple and gold armor and his horse went circles, reared, pirouetted, and ran backwards as Totila tossed his lance into the air and caught it. At last, he back to his own army and changed into battle armor. His reinforcements having arrived, Totila broke formation and retired for lunch, Narses, wary of a possible ruse, permitted his troops to refresh themselves without leaving their positions. Totila, apparently hoping to take his enemy by surprise, launched a sudden large-scale mounted assault upon the Byzantine center. Ancient and modern authors have accused him of folly, but Totila probably sought to close with the enemy as fast as possible in order to avoid the effects of the formidable Byzantine archers. The Byzantines were prepared for such a move, however, caught in the enfilading fire from both sides, the Ostrogothic cavalry sustained high casualties and their attack faltered. The course and duration of the subsequent battle are uncertain, but towards early evening Narses ordered an advance. Although accounts vary, it was probably during the subsequent rout that Totila was killed, Narses proceeded to Rome which fell with limited resistance. The Ostrogoths regrouped under Totilas successor Teia, but suffered a defeat at the Battle of Mons Lactarius

39.
Battle of Mons Lactarius
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The Battle of Mons Lactarius took place in 552 or 553 in the course the Gothic War waged on behalf of Justinian I against the Ostrogoths in Italy. After the Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the battle lasted two days, and Teia was killed in the fighting. Ostrogothic power in Italy was eliminated, and the remaining Ostrogoths went back north, after the battle, Italy was again invaded, this time by the Franks, but they too were defeated and the peninsula was, for a time, reintegrated into the empire. History of the Later Roman Empire by J. B

40.
Battle of Akroinon
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The Battle of Akroinon was fought at Akroinon or Akroinos in Phrygia, on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau, in 740 between an Umayyad Arab army and the Byzantine forces. The Arabs had been conducting raids into Anatolia for the past century. The battle resulted in a decisive Byzantine victory, since the beginning of the Muslim conquests, the Byzantine Empire, as the largest, richest and militarily strongest state bordering the expanding Caliphate, had been the Muslims primary enemy. Following their failure to capture the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, in 717–718 and these were no longer aimed at permanent conquest but rather large-scale raids, plundering and devastating the countryside and only occasionally attacking forts or major settlements. The raids of this period were largely confined to the central Anatolian plateau. Gradually, however, the Muslim successes became fewer, especially as their resources were drawn into the conflict with the Khazars in the Caucasus. The raids continued, but the Arab and Byzantine chroniclers mention fewer successful captures of forts or towns, nevertheless, in 737 a major victory over the Khazars allowed the Arabs to shift their focus and intensify their campaigns against Byzantium. Thus in 738 and 739 Maslamah ibn Hisham led successful raids, for the year 740, Hisham assembled the largest expedition of his reign, placing it under his son Sulayman. According to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the invading Umayyad force totalled 90,000 men, the Emperor Leo confronted the second force at Akroinon. Details of the battle are not known, but the Emperor secured a crushing victory, the rest of the Arab troops managed to conduct an orderly retreat to Synnada, where they joined Sulayman. The other two Arab forces devastated the countryside unopposed, but failed to any towns or forts. Akroinon was a success for the Byzantines, as it was the first large-scale victory they had scored in a pitched battle against the Arabs. Seeing it as evidence of Gods renewed favour, the victory also served to strengthen Leos belief in the policy of iconoclasm that he had adopted some years before. In the immediate aftermath, this opened up the way for a more aggressive stance by the Byzantines. The Arab defeat at Akroinon has traditionally seen as a decisive battle. Other historians however, from the early 20th-century Syriac scholar E. W, as a result, the Arab attacks against the Byzantine Empire in the 740s were rather ineffectual and soon ceased completely. The End of the Jihâd State, The Reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik, albany, New York, State University of New York Press. New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, papers given at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, March 1975

41.
Battle of Lalakaon
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The Battle of Lalakaon or the Battle of Poson was fought in 863 between the Byzantine Empire and an invading Arab army in Paphlagonia. Umar al-Aqta was able to overcome the initial Byzantine resistance against his invasion, the Byzantines then mobilized all their forces, and the Arab army was encircled near the River Lalakaon. The subsequent battle ended in a complete Byzantine victory and the death of the Emir on the field, the Bulgarians were pressured into accepting the Byzantine form of Christianity, thus beginning this nations absorption into the Byzantine cultural sphere. Following the rapid Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the Byzantine Empire found itself confined to Asia Minor, the coasts of the Balkans. As Byzantium remained the Caliphates major infidel enemy, Arab raids into Asia Minor continued throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. Over time, these expeditions, launched from bases in the Arab frontier zone on an almost annual basis, acquired a quasi-ritualized character as part of the Muslim jihad. During that period, the Byzantines were generally on the defensive, and suffered some catastrophic defeats such as the razing of Amorium, the home city of the reigning Byzantine dynasty, in 838. Melitene, in particular, was a threat to Byzantium as its location on the western side of the Anti-Taurus range allowed direct access to the Anatolian plateau. In the summer of 863, Umar struck again, joining forces with the Abbasid general Jafar ibn Dinar al-Khayyat for a raid into Cappadocia. The Arabs crossed the Cilician Gates into Byzantine territory, plundering as they went, there, the Tarsian army returned home, but Umar obtained Jafars leave to press on into Asia Minor. The Byzantinist John Haldon considers the number to be closer to reality. It is likely that a Paulician contingent under Karbeas was present as well, the battle was bloody with many casualties on both sides, according to the Persian historian al-Tabari, only a thousand of Umars army survived. Nevertheless, the Arabs managed to escape the Byzantines and continue their raid north into the Armeniac Theme, eventually reaching the Black Sea and sacking the port city of Amisos. The Byzantine historians report that Umar, enraged at the sea blocking his advance, ordered it to be lashed, but this is most likely inspired by the similar account of Xerxes during the Persian Wars. As soon as Michael learned of the fall of Amisos, he ordered a force to be assembled under his uncle Petronas, the Domestic of the Schools, and Nasar. Al-Tabari records that the Emperor himself assumed command of these forces, given the bias against Michael by the historians writing during the Macedonian dynasty, this may be a deliberate omission. The forces assembled came from all over the Byzantine Empire, the exact location of the river and the battle site have not been identified, but most scholars agree that they lay near the river Halys, some 130 kilometres southeast of Amisos. With the approach of the Byzantine armies, the only escape route left to the Emir

42.
Battle of Nineveh (627)
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The Battle of Nineveh was the climactic battle of the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628. The Byzantine victory later resulted in war in Persia and for a period of time restored the Roman empire to its ancient boundaries in the Middle East. This resurgence of power and prestige was not to last, as within a matter of a few years, when Emperor Maurice was murdered by the usurper Phocas, Khosrau II declared war, ostensibly to avenge his benefactors death. While the Persians were successful during the first stages of the war, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, and even Anatolia, Heraclius campaigns altered the balance, forcing the Persians on the defensive and allowing for the Byzantines to regain momentum. Allied with the Avars, the Persians attempted to take Constantinople, the Caucasus-based Turks responded by sending 40,000 of their men to ravage the Persian empire in 626 to start the Third Perso-Turkic War. Joint Byzantine and Göktürks operations were focused on besieging Tiflis, in mid-September 627, leaving Ziebel to continue the siege of Tiflis, Heraclius invaded the Persian heartland, this time with between 25,000 and 50,000 troops and 40,000 Göktürks. The Göktürks, however, quickly deserted him because of the winter conditions. Heraclius was tailed by Rhahzadhs army of 12,000, but managed to evade Rhahzadh and invaded the heartland of the Persian Empire, Heraclius acquired food and fodder from the countryside, so Rhahzadh, following through countryside already stripped, could not easily find provisions. This resulted in harm to Rhahzadhs animals, on 1 December, Heraclius crossed the Great Zab River and camped near the ruins of the capital of the former Assyrian Empire of Nineveh in Persian ruled Assyria/Assuristan. This was a movement from south to north, contrary to the expectation of a southward advance, however, this can be seen as a way to avoid being trapped by the Persian army in case of a defeat. Rhahzadh approached Nineveh from a different position, news that 3,000 Persian reinforcements were approaching reached Heraclius, forcing him to act. He gave the appearance of retreating from Persia by crossing the Tigris, Heraclius had found a plain west of the Great Zab some distance from the ruins of Nineveh. This allowed the Byzantines to take advantage of their strengths in lances, furthermore, the fog reduced the Persian advantage in missile troops and allowed the Byzantines to charge without great losses from missile barrages. Walter Kaegi believes that this took place near Karamlays Creek. Rhahzadh deployed his forces into three masses and attacked, Heraclius feigned retreat to lead the Persians to the plains before reversing his troops to the surprise of the Persians. After eight hours of fighting, the Persians suddenly retreated to nearby foothills, nikephoros Brief History tells that Rhahzadh challenged Heraclius to personal combat. Heraclius accepted and killed Rhahzadh in a single thrust, two other challengers fought and also lost, in any case, Rhahzadh died sometime in the battle. The 3,000 Persian reinforcements arrived too late for the battle, the victory at Nineveh was not total as the Byzantines were unable to capture the Persian camp

43.
Battle of Kleidion
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The Battle of Kleidion took place on July 29,1014 between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. It was the culmination of the nearly half-century struggle between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II and the Bulgarian Emperor Samuil in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the result was a decisive Byzantine victory. The battle took place in the valley between the mountains of Belasitsa and Ograzhden near the modern Bulgarian village of Klyuch, the decisive encounter occurred on July 29 with an attack in the rear by a force under the Byzantine general Nikephoros Xiphias, who had infiltrated the Bulgarian positions. The ensuing battle was a defeat for the Bulgarians. Bulgarian soldiers were captured and reputedly blinded by order of Basil II, Samuel survived the battle, but died two months later from a heart attack, reportedly brought on by the sight of his blind soldiers. The heirs of Samuel could not subsequently hold off the Byzantine advance, the origins of the conflict date back to the 7th century, when the Bulgars under Khan Asparukh established a state along the Danube in one of the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire. As a result, the Bulgarian state was forced to fight a series of wars with Byzantium in order to secure its continued existence, in 968, Bulgaria was invaded from the north by the Kievan Prince Sviatoslav. By that time, the Bulgarian Empire, which had threatened the existence of Byzantium under the reign of Simeon, had lost much of its power. This war had resulted in the Bulgarian Emperor Boris II being forced to renounce his Imperial title in Constantinople, when the Byzantine emperor Basil II ascended the throne in 976, he made the destruction of independent Bulgaria his first ambition. Opposing him were the Western Bulgarians, now led by Samuel of Bulgaria, Basil IIs first campaign was disastrous, the emperor barely escaping with his life when the Bulgarians annihilated the Byzantine army in the Gates of Trajan Pass in 986. However, his invasion of southern Greece, that reached as far as Corinth, the next phase of the war began in 1000, when Basil, having secured his own position, launched a series of offensives against Bulgaria. He secured Moesia, and in 1003, his forces took Vidin, the next year, Basil inflicted a heavy defeat on Samuel in the Battle of Skopie. By 1005, Basil had regained control of Thessaly and parts of southern Macedonia, despite some successes, these did not achieve any permanent results, nor did they force Basil to abandon his campaigns in Bulgaria. In the words of Byzantine historian John Skylitzes, The Emperor Basil II continued to invade Bulgaria each year and destroy, Samuel could not stop him in the open field or engage the Emperor in a decisive battle, and suffered many defeats and began to lose his strength. The culmination of the war came in 1014, when Samuel, at the head of his army, Samuel knew that the Byzantine army would have to invade the country through a series of mountain passes, and so took precautions to bar them. Samuel heavily fortified the slopes of the Belasitsa mountain to the south. The wide valley of the Strumitsa River was a convenient place for attack, the Bulgarians disposed a strong guard to keep the pass safe. In addition, the Bulgarian ruler chose Strumitsa for his defensive base — it was located on the road from Thessaloniki leading to Thrace to the east, the rugged terrain to the south was dotted with earthworks and walls guarded by strong Bulgarian units

44.
Siege of Constantinople (1204)
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The Sack of Constantinople or Siege of Constantinople occurred in 1204 and marked the culmination of the Fourth Crusade. Mutinous Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, after the capture, the Latin Empire was created and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia. After the citys sacking, most of the Byzantine Empires territories were divided up, however, the restored Empire would never return to its former territorial or economic status, and eventually fell to the rising Ottoman Sultanate in the 1453 Siege of Constantinople. The sack of Constantinople is a turning point in medieval history. The Crusaders decision to attack a major Christian capital was unprecedented and immediately controversial, the Fourth Crusade therefore left Christendom more divided and weakened than before. Following the siege of Constantinople in 1203, on 1 August 1203, the pro-Crusader Alexios Angelos was crowned Emperor Alexios IV of the Byzantine Empire, who then tried to pacify the city. But riots between anti-Crusader Greeks and pro-Crusader Latins broke out later that month and lasted until November, during which most of the populace began to turn against Emperor Alexios IV. Emperor Alexios V then attempted to negotiate with the Crusaders for a withdrawal from Byzantine territory, when Alexios V ordered Alexios IVs execution on 8 February, the Crusaders declared war on Alexios V. In March 1204, the Crusader and Venetian leadership decided on the outright conquest of Constantinople, by the end of March, the combined Crusader armies were besieging Constantinople as Emperor Alexios V began to strengthen the citys defences while conducting more active operations outside the city. By the first week of April, the Crusaders had begun their siege from their encampment in the town of Galata across the Golden Horn from Constantinople, on 12 April 1204 weather conditions finally favoured the Crusaders as the weather cleared and a second assault on the city was ordered. A strong north wind aided the Venetian ships near the Golden Horn to come close to the city wall, after a short battle approximately 70 Crusaders managed to enter the city. Emperor Alexios V fled from the city that night through the Polyandriou Gate, the Crusaders looted, terrorized, and vandalized Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient and medieval Roman and Greek works were either stolen or destroyed. The famous bronze horses from the Hippodrome were sent back to adorn the façade of St Marks Basilica in Venice, as well as being stolen, works of immeasurable artistic value were destroyed merely for their material value. One of the most precious works to such a fate was a large bronze statue of Hercules, created by the legendary Lysippos. Like so many other artworks made of bronze, the statue was melted down for its content by the Crusaders. The great Library of Constantinople was destroyed as well, the civilian population of Constantinople were subject to the Crusaders ruthless lust for spoils and glory, thousands of them were killed in cold blood. Women, even nuns, were raped by the Crusader army, the very altars of these churches were smashed and torn to pieces for their gold and marble by the warriors. Although the Venetians engaged in looting too, their actions were far more restrained, doge Dandolo still appeared to have far more control over his men

Military history of ancient Greece
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Warfare occurred throughout the history of ancient Greece, from the Greek Dark Ages onward. The Greek Dark Age drew to a close as a significant increase in population allowed urbanized culture to be restored and these developments ushered in the period of Archaic Greece. They also restored the capability of organized warfare between these Poleis, t

1.
Reconstruction of a Hoplite Phalanx formation

2.
A hoplite armed with an aspis and a doru. nb: it is usually agreed that the doru could not be used two-handed with the aspis.

3.
The key actions of each phase

4.
Agrianian peltast holding three javelins, one in his throwing hand and two in his pelte hand as additional ammunition

History of Greece
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The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece, as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages, and, as a result, at its cultural and geographical peak, Greek civilization spread from G

1.
Jug with bird, example of Cycladic art, about 1600 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

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A fresco found at the Minoan site of Knossos, indicating a sport or ritual of "bull leaping"; the red-skinned figure is a man and the two light-skinned figures are women.

3.
The Lion Gate, Mycenae.

Neolithic Greece
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Neolithic Greece is an archaeological term used to refer to the Neolithic phase of Greek history beginning with the spread of farming to Greece in 7000–6500 BC. The Neolithic Revolution reached Europe beginning in 7000–6500 BC when agriculturalists from the Near East entered the Greek peninsula from Anatolia mainly by island-hopping through the Aeg

1.
Neolithic Greece

Helladic period
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Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is used in archaeology and art history. The scheme applies primarily to pottery and is a dating system. The pottery at any given site typically can be ordered into Early, Middle and Late on t

3.
Remains of a building from Olympia, Greece Early Helladic III 2150–2000 BC.

Cycladic culture
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Cycladic civilization is an Early Bronze Age culture of the Cyclades, Greece, in the Aegean Sea, spanning the period from approximately 3200–2000 BC. These figures have been stolen from burials to satisfy the Cycladic antiquities market since the early 20th century, only about 40% of the 1,400 figurines found are of known origin, since looters dest

Minoan civilization
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The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, the civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has bee

Mycenaean Greece
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Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its states, urban organization, works of art. Among the centers of power emerged, the most notable were those of Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece. The mo

1.
Mycenaean Greece

2.
The Lion Gate, the main entrance of the citadel of Mycenae, 13th century BC.

3.
Two Mycenaean Greek warriors with boar's tusk helmets on a dual-chariot on a fresco from Pylos (about 1350 BC) (left) and Two Mycenaean female charioteers from Tiryns, 1200 BCE (right)

Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the

1.
The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.

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Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period, c. 750 BC.

3.
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods

Greek Dark Ages
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Around then, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation, in Greece, the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceased. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks th

1.
Greek Dark Ages

2.
The Protogeometric building and the cemetery at Toumba Lefkandi.

Archaic Greece
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According to Anthony Snodgrass, the Archaic period in ancient Greece was bounded by two revolutions in the Greek world. The Archaic period saw developments in Greek politics, economics, international relations, warfare and it laid the groundwork for the Classical period, both politically and culturally. The word archaic derives from the Greek word

1.
Archaic kouros from Thebes

2.
Orientalizing style

3.
Black-figure style

Classical Greece
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Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Greek culture. This Classical period saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire, Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, theatre,

1.
The Parthenon, in Athens, a temple to Athena

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Statue of King Leonidas of Sparta

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Cities at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War

Hellenistic Greece
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During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt, cities such as Pergamon, Ephesus, Rhodes and Seleucia were also important, and increasing urbanization of the Eastern Mediterranean was cha

Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The med

1.
The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

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A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

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Coin of Theodoric

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Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

Byzantine Greece
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The history of Byzantine Greece mainly coincides with the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. The Greek peninsula became a Roman protectorate in 146 BC, Athens and other Greek cities revolted in 88 BC, and the peninsula was crushed by the Roman general Sulla. The Roman civil wars devastated the land even further, until Augustus organized the peninsu

1.
Arch of Galerius, Thessaloniki.

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The Palace of Galerius in Thessaloniki (Navarinou Square), where the Massacre of Thessalonica took place during the reign of Theodosius I.

3.
Alaric I in Athens by Ludwig Thiersch.

Frankokratia
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The term derives from the fact that the Orthodox Greeks called the Western European Catholics Latins, most of whom were of French or Venetian origin. The Latin Empire, centered in Constantinople and encompassing Thrace and Bithynia and its territories were gradually reduced to little more than the capital, which was eventually captured by the Empir

1.
The Greek and Latin states in southern Greece, ca. 1214.

2.
The beginning of Frankokratia: the division of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade.

3.
Map of the Kingdom of Candia

Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers be

1.
Waldseemüller map with joint sheets, 1507

2.
15th century Hanging Houses in Cuenca, Spain from the Early Renaissance, and the Early modern period.

4.
The Cantino planisphere (1502), the oldest surviving Portuguese nautical chart showing the results of the explorations of Vasco da Gama to India, Columbus to Central America, Gaspar Corte-Real to Newfoundland and Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil. The meridian of Tordesillas, separating the Portuguese and Spanish halves of the world is also depicted

Ottoman Greece
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Most of the areas which today are within modern Greeces borders were at some point in the past a part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by victory over the Serbs to its north, first, the Ottomans won the Battle of Maritsa in 1371. The Serb forces were led by the King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the father of Prince Marko.

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A map of the Ottoman Empire at the death of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566.

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"The Hyperian Fountain at Pherae ", Edward Dodwell.

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Engraving of a Greek merchant (16th century)

History of modern Greece
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The establishment of Catholic Latin states on Greek soil, and the struggles of the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks against them, led to the emergence of a distinct Greek national identity. Ottoman control was largely absent in the interior of Greece. Rhodes fell in 1522, Cyprus in 1571, and the Venetians retained Crete until 1670, the Ionian Islands were

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Ioannis Kapodistrias.

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Face and Obverse of a Phoenix coin.

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Assassination of Ioannis Kapodistrias by Dionysios Tsokos.

Septinsular Republic
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The Septinsular Republic was an island republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands. It succeeded the previous French departments of Greece and it was the first time Greeks had been granted even limited self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the O

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Flag

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The Republic's territory extended to the seven main islands plus the smaller islets of the Ionian Sea

Greek War of Independence
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The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, during this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain inde

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Theodoros Vryzakis (oil painting, 1852, Benaki Museum, Athens) illustrates Bishop Germanos of old Patras blessing the Greek banner at Agia Lavra on the outset of the national revolt against the Turks on 25 March 1821.

First Hellenic Republic
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The First Hellenic Republic is a term used to refer to the provisional Greek state during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. In the first stages of the 1821 uprising, various areas elected their own regional governing councils, the councils continued in existence however, and central authority was not firmly established until

Kingdom of Greece
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The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 at the Convention of London by the Great Powers. It was internationally recognized by the Treaty of Constantinople, where it also secured full independence from the Ottoman Empire and this event also marked the birth of the first, fully independent, Greek state since the fall of the Byzantine Em

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Otto, the first King of modern Greece, in traditional Greek dress.

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Flag (after 1863)

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King George I of the Hellenes.

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The Hellenic Parliament in the 1880s, with PM Charilaos Trikoupis standing at the podium.

National Schism
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Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would favor the plans of the Central Powers. The disagreement had wider implications, since it would affect the character. After intense diplomatic negotiations and a confrontation in Athens betwee

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The protagonists of the National Schism: King Constantine (second from left) and Prime Minister Venizelos (back turned to camera) at the Greek GHQ, during the halcyon days of the Balkan Wars. At the time, their relationship seemed to be cordial, and nothing presaged the deep rift that would split the country in two.

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King Constantine I in German Field Marshal's uniform. His pro-German sympathies caused him to favour a course of neutrality in the First World War.

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Eleftherios Venizelos, the Greek Prime Minister, believed that Greece's interests were best served by entering the war on the side of the Allies.

Second Hellenic Republic
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The Second Hellenic Republic is the historiographical term for the political regime of Greece between 1924 and 1935. It followed from the period of the monarchy under the monarchs of the House of Glücksburg. The Second Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924, in the aftermath of Greeces defeat by Turkey in the Asia Minor Campaign, during its brief

4th of August Regime
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The 4th of August Regime, commonly also known as the Metaxas Regime, was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941. It took its name from a self-coup carried out by Metaxas, with the support of King George II, lacking a popular base, after Metaxas death in January 1941

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Flag

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EON on parade (from its official magazine I Neolaia). The double axe, emblem of the organisation, is visible on the standard.

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Ioannis Metaxas with King George II and Alexandros Papagos during a meeting of the Anglo-Greek War Council.

Axis occupation of Greece
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The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded Greece to assist its ally, Fascist Italy, which had been at war with Greece since October 1940. Following the conquest of Crete, all of Greece was occupied by June 1941, the occupation in the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria were forced to

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German soldiers enter Athens in 1941.

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The three occupation zones. Blue indicates the Italian, red the German and green the territory annexed by Bulgaria. The Italian zone was taken over by the Germans in September 1943.

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Soldiers of the Legion Freies Arabien in Wehrmacht, Greece, September 1943.

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German artillery shelling the Metaxas Line.

Greek Civil War
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The Greek Civil War was fought in Greece from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek government army, and the Democratic Army of Greece. The fighting resulted in the defeat of the Communist insurgents by the government forces, the civil war resulted from a highly polarized struggle between left and right ideologies that started in 1943. From 1944 each side

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Greek Civil War

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A member of the Security Battalions with a man executed for aiding the Resistance.

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Guerillas of ELAS

Greek art
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Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods. Greek art is mainly five forms, architecture, sculpture, painting, artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilizations, both of which were inf

Constitutional history of Greece
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In the modern history of Greece, starting from the Greek War of Independence, the Constitution of 1975/1986/2001 is the last in a series of democratically adopted Constitutions. During the Greek War of Independence, three constitutional texts were adopted by the Greek National Assemblies, the representative political gatherings of the Greek revolut

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In the name of the Holy, Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity...are the first words of the Greek Constitution of 1844.

Names of the Greeks
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The Greeks have been identified by many ethnonyms. The most common native ethnonym is Hellen, pl. Hellenes, among his descendants are also mentioned the Graeci and the Makedones. The first Greek-speaking people, called Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, Homer refers to Achaeans as the dominant tribe during the Trojan war period usually d

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Soleto is one of the nine Greek -speaking towns in the province of Apulia, Italy. Their inhabitants are descendants of the first wave of Greek settlers in Italy and Sicily in the 8th century BC. The dialect they speak evolved separately from Hellenistic Greek. The people of these towns call themselves Grekos, from the Latin Graecus.

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Hieronymus Wolf was a 16th-century German historian. After coming into contact with the works of Laonicus Chalcondyles, he also went ahead with identifying Byzantine historiography for the purpose of distinguishing medieval Greek from ancient Roman history.

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The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix, 1840. The sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Crusaders acerbated Greek nationalism and created disdain for the Latins which is well illustrated in the documents of the era. Nicetas Choniates portrays an especially lively account of the sack and its aftermath.

Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In

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The Balkan Peninsula, as defined by the Danube - Sava - Kupa line

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The Peninsula's most extensive definition, bordered by water on three sides and connected with a line on the fourth

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Panorama of Stara Planina. Its highest peak is Botev at a height of 2,376 m.

Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait o

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Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial "Rom".

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Map of the Mediterranean Sea

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With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.

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The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.

Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and

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The Black Sea in Batumi, Georgia

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Black Sea

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The port of the Black Sea in Yevpatoria, Crimea

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Swallow's Nest in Crimea

Iberian War
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The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia. After the Anastasian War, a truce was agreed on. Even during the war in 505, Emperor Anastasius I had already started fortifying Dara as a counter to the Persian fortress city of Nisibis for a looming conflict. Th

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The Roman-Persian frontier in the 4th to 7th centuries

Battle of Dara
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The Battle of Dara was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanids in 530. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War, the Byzantine Empire was at war with the Sassanids from 527, supposedly because Kavadh I had tried to force the Iberians to become Zoroastrians. The Iberian king fled from Kavadh, but Kavadh tried to make peace with the

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map of the battle

Vandalic War
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The Vandalic War was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Vandalic Kingdom of Carthage, in 533–534. It was the first of Justinian Is wars of reconquest of the lost Western Roman Empire, the Vandals had occupied Roman North Africa in the early 5th century, and established an independent kingdom the

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A member of the retinue of Emperor Justinian I in the mosaic in the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, which is usually identified with Belisarius

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Campaign map of the war

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Fifty- denarii coin of Gelimer

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Drawing of a medallion commemorating the Roman victory in the Vandalic War, c. 535

Battle of Ad Decimum
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The Battle of Ad Decimum took place on September 13,533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, and the Byzantine Empire, under the command of general Belisarius. This event and events in the year are sometimes jointly referred to as the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantine victory marked the beginning of the end for the Vandals,

Battle of Taginae
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From as early as 549 the Emperor Justinian I had planned to dispatch a major army to Italy to conclude the protracted war with the Ostrogoths initiated in 535. The imperial chamberlain Narses was appointed to command in mid 551, the following spring Narses led this Byzantine army around the coast of the Adriatic as far as Ancona, and then turned in

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Totila, King of the Ostrogoths At Taginae, Totila was slain by the Gepid Lancer Asbad

Battle of Mons Lactarius
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The Battle of Mons Lactarius took place in 552 or 553 in the course the Gothic War waged on behalf of Justinian I against the Ostrogoths in Italy. After the Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the battle lasted two days, and Teia was killed in the fighting. Ostrogothic power in Italy was eliminated, and the remaining O

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Battle on the slopes of the Vesuvius

Battle of Akroinon
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The Battle of Akroinon was fought at Akroinon or Akroinos in Phrygia, on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau, in 740 between an Umayyad Arab army and the Byzantine forces. The Arabs had been conducting raids into Anatolia for the past century. The battle resulted in a decisive Byzantine victory, since the beginning of the Muslim conquests, th

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Map of Anatolia (Asia Minor) in 740 AD. Akroinon is located at the center of the western edge of the central Anatolian plateau

Battle of Lalakaon
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The Battle of Lalakaon or the Battle of Poson was fought in 863 between the Byzantine Empire and an invading Arab army in Paphlagonia. Umar al-Aqta was able to overcome the initial Byzantine resistance against his invasion, the Byzantines then mobilized all their forces, and the Arab army was encircled near the River Lalakaon. The subsequent battle

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The Battle of Lalakaon, as depicted in the Madrid Skylitzes

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The success of the Battle of Lalakaon and its follow-up operations enabled the Empire to focus its might against Bulgaria, leading to its successful Christianization. Depiction of the baptism of the Bulgarians from the Manasses Chronicle.

Battle of Nineveh (627)
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The Battle of Nineveh was the climactic battle of the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628. The Byzantine victory later resulted in war in Persia and for a period of time restored the Roman empire to its ancient boundaries in the Middle East. This resurgence of power and prestige was not to last, as within a matter of a few years, when Emperor Maurice

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the Battle of Nineveh between the Byzantines and Sassanids Fresco by Piero della Francesca, c. 1452

Battle of Kleidion
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The Battle of Kleidion took place on July 29,1014 between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. It was the culmination of the nearly half-century struggle between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II and the Bulgarian Emperor Samuil in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the result was a decisive Byzantine victory. The battle took place in t

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The Byzantines defeat the Bulgarians at Kleidion, Madrid Skylitzes.

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Map of Bulgaria and Byzantium c.1000

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The Byzantines defeat the Bulgarians (top). Emperor Samuel dying at the sight of his blinded soldiers (bottom). Manasses Chronicle

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South-eastern Europe c.1000. The Byzantine possessions and independent western Bulgaria are depicted. By that time, eastern Bulgaria was also in Bulgarian hands.

Siege of Constantinople (1204)
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The Sack of Constantinople or Siege of Constantinople occurred in 1204 and marked the culmination of the Fourth Crusade. Mutinous Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, after the capture, the Latin Empire was created and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia. After

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The Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix.

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The siege of Constantinople in 1204, by Palma il Giovane.

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The Horses of Saint Mark displayed on the facade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice

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The triumvirate of the National Defence government, Venizelos, General Panagiotis Danglis and Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis, at the presentation of the regimental flags for the first units raised by the revolutionary regime to fight in the Macedonian Front

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Greek military formation in the World War I Victory Parade in Arc de Triomphe, Paris. July 1919.

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Italian soldiers in Vlorë, Albania during World War I. The tricolour flag of Italy bearing the Savoy royal shield is shown hanging alongside an Albanian flag from the balcony of the Italian prefecture headquarters.

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Winston Churchill believed it was vital for Britain to take every measure possible to support Greece. On 8 January 1941, he stated that "there was no other course open to us but to make certain that we had spared no effort to help the Greeks who had shown themselves so worthy."

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Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey, commander of Australian I Corps, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, commanding general of the Empire expeditionary force ('W' Force) and Major General Bernard Freyberg, commander of the New Zealand 2nd Division, in 1941 in Greece

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Into the Jaws of Death by Robert F. Sargent. Assault craft land one of the first waves at Omaha Beach. The U.S. Coast Guard caption identifies the unit as Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.

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U.S. soldiers march through Weymouth, Dorset en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.

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D-day assault routes into Normandy.

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Off Omaha Beach, American Liberty ships – 'Corn Cobs' were scuttled to provide a makeshift breakwater during the early days of the invasion.